The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1887-08-18
Latent Wealth in Southern Agriculture
BY HENRY STEWART.

~~N~~
A field is cleared of the forest growth
and is cropped amid the abundant
weeds until the poor crop yielded
under most imperfect system of
culture, no longer contributes to the
miserable subsistence Of the cropper.
It is then turned out to be washed
and quilted and become prey TO
the prevailing sedge. Under this
system the land yields from 5 to 10
bushels Of wheat or corn and 100 to
$50 pounds of cotton to the acre.
Manure is known only as the drop
pings of half starved COWS, oxen, or
mules, gathered in pens, where the
animals are fed upon dried corn
blades, corn husks, and the rare corn
ear or nubbin. The corn is reserved
for the farmer who subsists upon the
prevailing corn bread and Western
bacon, while the COW gets the husks
sifted from the meal for her share.
This IS the common condition of ag-
riculture over a large portion of the
Southern States. The exceptions
are somewhat rare, but are a pleas
ing proof Of what the Southern soil
and climate are capsble of under
good management. twenty-five or
80 bushels of wheat, so of oats, 40
to go Of corn, 1000 to 1900 pounds
of cotton, with fields Of millet, clover,
and grass for bay, peas and other
crops Of fodder. improved cattle,
thrifty sheep, fine horses, herds of
well-bred and well-fed swine, and
fields literally Flowing with milk and
honey" and all that this smile i'm.
plies are possible everywhere in the
"Sunny South" where farmwork may
be Gone every day in the year, ex-
cept when acceptable rain prevent.
All this wealth then lies practically
latent in the soil, waiting only for
the skillful labor of the farmer to
bring it forth. And for want Of it
Southern agriculture groans under q
load of poverty and debt. The small
crops grown.are half eaten up before
the seed is put in the soil. Fertili-
zers that are depended upon for max
ing the crop are bought on long
credit, and supplies and provisions
are also procured in this same ruin
Gus manner. Very often the crop
does not clear itself Of debt, and
balance is carried over st compound
interest of one per cent. month.
Twenty five per cent. profits charged
upon fertilizers and provisions, and
these bear ali the costs Of high
freights from the far West besides
the merchants profit. Bacon which
sells in Cincinnati for 81 cents q
pound costs Is cents at the Southern
stores, and Western corn has been
selling for Is cents to 81 bushel in
many localities where the poor corn
crop has been consumed before the
planting season came around.
This disagreesble surface only
makes the bright interior more at
tractive to those who can see through
the dark outer crust the rich wealth
within reach. A far-sighted man
once remarked, when the richness of
the Southern gold fields was sub
ject of conversation There is more
gold on the surface than in all your
underground veins and mines"
'sHow is that?" he was asked. "Why,
in the grass you can grow. You are
buying your mules and horses, your
hay, -four, meat, butter, cheese, and
even your milk in cans. And the
money you get for your cotton with
one hand goes out through the other
to pay for all these products which
j., grass would enable you to supply
yourself with"
Grass hourishes remarkably well
il the Southern climate. We have
seen in July as fine and luxuriant q
pasture of Bermuda grass growing in
Central Georgia IS the famed blue
grass in Kentucky. Later in the
season this grass has been known to
make four tons Of hay per acre. A
Northern farmer who purchased a
large Southern farm few days ago
found so >luxuriant crop Of grass on
the land that he sent for three now
ing machines to cut it, made it into
hay, and baled it, and sold more than
Nenough to pay for the farm in the first
year. And the farm was abandoned
by the former owner and sold at q
sacrifice because it was overrun with
this grass so that cotton could not be
grown. Here is one source of vast
wealth, if it should do no more than
supply large and profitable dairy
industry. But :here are large vs.
riety Of fodde- crops that can be
- E. e ho